Partnering to Address Health Disparities: The Community Action Model Response

Awareness of the magnitude of variance in heath outcomes among racial, ethnic, and cultural group has increased. However, effective policies addressing health disparities remain elusive. Health planners have augmented their appreciation for active community participation in the identification of problems and in the definition, design, and implementation of integrated solutions. The Community Action Model (CAM) challenges traditional paradigms that concentrate on deficits and instead builds on asset-focused research to achieve changes in policies from an emic perspective, and seeks to empower and mobilize community members to address factors that perpetuate inequalities. While research methodologies informed by an asset-based paradigm have been at the center of much peer-reviewed literature, unfortunately, little time is devoted to highlighting factors contributing to successful partnerships in the development of strategies to eliminate health disparities. The presentation describes the synergistic effects resulting from steps taken by a CBO and its academic partner to address health disparities in the nation's largest county and where no specific research had been conducted to define or rank the reasons behind differences in health status. Steps include organizing and skill-based training Community Action Teams (CAT), followed by action research in which the CAT defines and conducts a community diagnosis and the analysis of the findings. Subsequent actions involve policy development and implementation of county-wide community-specific health empowerment initiatives. Formative evaluation principles are integral to each phase in order to promote community capacity building and to ensure implementation of effective interventions and policies.